Skip to content
Search
AI Powered
Latest Stories

Packaging reforms deferred for a year to October 2025

Packaging reforms deferred for a year to October 2025
iStock image
Getty Images/iStockphoto

The government said on Tuesday that new rules to ensure businesses and producers pay for the cost of recycling their packaging will be pushed back a year until October 2025 due to the economic pressures faced by consumers and firms.

“We’re determined to transform the way we collect, recycle and reuse our waste materials so we eliminate all avoidable waste by 2050 in a way that works for households and consumers," Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said in a statement.


“We are also listening to industry and ensuring our work to tackle inflation and to drive up recycling go hand in hand, to make sure our reforms will be a success.”

The government said it will use the additional year to continue to discuss the extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme’s design with industry and reduce the costs of implementation wherever possible. The decision, taken jointly with the devolved administrations, will also provide industry, local authorities and waste management companies with more time to prepare to ensure the success of the scheme, it added.

Businesses have welcomed the announcement.

“Whilst we remain absolutely committed to a circular economy and support the introduction of EPR, we welcome today’s announcement,” Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s chief executive, said.

“This will provide the necessary time to work across our industry and with [the] government in order to get EPR right first time. This decision is also an important step in minimising further pressure on food inflation and we will continue to focus on delivering the best value to customers in the coming months.”

Paul Vanston, chief executive of the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN), said: “UK and devolved Ministers are making the right set of decisions at this time to drive forward the shaping of the collections and packaging reforms.

“Ensuring overall systems efficiency, cost-effectiveness and high recycling performance are essentials for the governments and stakeholders to achieve together.”

The EPR scheme is expected to play a central part in delivering the government’s commitments of eliminating avoidable waste by 2050 and recycling 65 per cent of municipal waste by 2035.

This is in addition to the other measures, including the tax on plastic packaging which does not meet a minimum threshold of at least 30 per cent recycled content, which came into force last April, and the upcoming bans on countless single-use plastic items, including cutlery and plates.

More for you

Krakow Grocery

Krakow Grocery, Parkhills Road, Fishpool

Photo via LDRS

Trading standards claim ‘dual price’ shop offered cheaper vapes if customers paid in cash

Police and trading standards are demanding tough conditions be placed on a corner shop if it is to regain an alcohol licence.

Ahead of a licensing hearing next week the owners of Krakow Grocery, Parkhills Road, Fishpool, Bury have submitted evidence in support of an application to sell booze from 9am-11pm, seven days a week.

Keep ReadingShow less
Calls raised for industry-wide debate on frozen food temperatures

iStock image

Calls raised for industry-wide debate on frozen food temperatures

Karen McQuade, the recently elected president of the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF), has called for its members to engage in the debate about raising the standard temperature for frozen food.

Addressing the Federation’s annual lunch earlier this week, McQuade said that there is a compelling environmental case for raising the standard – which has been set at -18 degrees since the frozen food industry was born 100 years ago.

Keep ReadingShow less
Two Liverpool shops fined for illegal vape sales
Photo: iStock

Two Liverpool shops fined for illegal vape sales

Two business owners have been slapped with fines after being found selling vapes to children at shops in Liverpool. Sanctions have been handed down to two men who appeared before Liverpool and Knowsley Magistrates Court on Thursday.

Zahur Chaudhary, of Challoner Grove, was hit with a £250 fine after he was found to have sold a watermelon flavoured Elf Bar vape pen to a person under 18 at AF Newsagents on July 11. Chaudhary was also hit with costs of £250 and a £120 victim surcharge by magistrates.

Keep ReadingShow less
Police officers in Trafalgar Square, London

Police officers in Trafalgar Square, London

Photo: iStock

New Respect Orders to target repeat perpetrators of anti-social behaviour

The government on Friday announced that they will introduce new Respect Orders as part of the Crime and Policing Bill.

The measure, a modernised version of the anti-social behaviour orders that were introduced by the last Labour Government, is aimed at the most serious offenders who plague town centres and neighbourhoods with anti-social behaviour.

Keep ReadingShow less